That's What Christmas Is About

Apologia Studios

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So, this is my favorite time of year, I must confess. Not just because of the circumstances surrounding

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Christmas in terms of the celebration and the presents and the trees and the lights, although I do love all of those things.

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This really is my favorite time of year. But not just because of all the celebration and all the traditions that we have, the time we have together.

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It is my favorite time of year fundamentally because this is the time of year, other than of course when we celebrate the resurrection, the time of year when we actually see the world talking about Jesus.

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And sometimes they don't even realize it. They've adopted the tradition of the Christmas carols, the songs, and I love that we can walk into a mall that is not owned by Christians.

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And there are songs about God becoming a man to save sinners playing throughout that mall.

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I love that at this time of year you can't avoid the message of the

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Messiah. You can't avoid the truth that God has kept His promises to Abraham, to all the prophets, and ultimately to the world that He would send a deliverer, a

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Messiah, who would live a life that we have not lived, who would die a death that we deserve, would conquer that death, and then would do something very, very powerful.

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It says in the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah was coming. In Genesis chapter 3, as soon as the

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Bible opens up, it's a story of a loving God, an all -powerful God, God who creates us in His image, and we rebel against our

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Creator. And the moment, Genesis chapter 3, that fall enters into the world, you see God's promise to send our

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Savior, it's in the first couple of chapters of the Bible. You have creation, fall, and then the promise of the

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Messiah. And He promises that the Messiah is going to come, He'll be the seed of the woman, which is a very odd way to talk in Moses' day.

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Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. It's a very odd way to speak about someone's offspring as the woman's seed.

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It's the first mark of this promise of the virgin birth in Genesis chapter 3. But the woman's seed would crush the head of the serpent, deliver the death blow to our enemy, but be wounded in the process.

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And this wound would be simultaneous with the crushing of the head of the serpent. So in the crushing of the head of the serpent, the woman's seed would be wounded, temporary wound, a heal wound, but He would of course recover, but He would bring about our salvation.

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And the Bible continues to move through the text of the Old Testament, and you have all these promises that ultimately point to God Himself becoming a man to redeem us, to bring us to peace with God, which is our ultimate need, our very ultimate need,

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God becoming a man. But it's pointing toward something more than just my own private salvation.

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It's more about, it's more than just me going to heaven one day. The gospel is often preached that way today in Western evangelicalism and Christian context in terms of Jesus wants to save you so that you can go to heaven one day.

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And of course, amen to that, give me the bumper sticker and the t -shirt, yes, in Christ we go to heaven one day, we'll spend eternity with God, yes.

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But it was more than that. The story goes beyond simply my own personal private salvation and relationship with God.

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The story is much bigger, much more beautiful than that. It's much more Messiah -exalting than that.

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It's a story of all the families of the earth returning to worship the Lord, Psalm chapter 22.

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It's Psalm 110 .1, that the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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It's the Messiah who's king over the world, who is putting the world right again. Through God, the

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Messiah, who's taking away our sin, our debt, our death, who is actually in the process of inheriting all the nations, bringing them to himself.

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It's one of the amazing things, listen, about Christmas that maybe we often don't think about. You sing the songs like Joy to the

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World, which by the way wasn't originally a Christmas song, it was just a song about the

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Messiah that actually happens to work really well with Christmas. But think about even the words in Joy to the

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World, Joy to the World, the Lord has come, let earth receive her what? Her what?

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Her king. And then it says what? That he's coming and he's going to remove the curse as far as the curse is found.

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That's the story, is that Jesus is the beginning of the new creation. He's conquered death, our greatest enemy, he's conquered our sins, and he is now through the redemption of sinners, saving men and women, children from among all the nations, bringing them to himself, bringing glory to himself through salvation, and that's the story of Christmas.

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God becoming a man, God humbling himself, taking on the form of a servant,

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Paul says in Philippians, and actually becoming obedient even to death.

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And Christmas is the mark, the starting point of that story, it's where God becomes a man and he steps into history and he splits history.

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Now listen to the text of Matthew just for a moment, and we have a short time tonight but I want you to hear this. Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

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And this is the part afterwards that you all love to read and you never miss a part, it's the genealogy, right?

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You need to know something as much as you think, well why do I care about the genealogy? Without the genealogies we don't know that God kept his covenant promises to the prophets and the fathers.

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That text there demonstrates that God kept his promises. But notice it says, to Abraham and to David, to the

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Jews that's significant, those guys are giants and they're people that God promised blessing to and the

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Messiah through. And so he promises to Abraham, Abraham you're going to have descendants as numerous as the stars.

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That's an incalculable number, it's incomprehensible. You're going to have descendants,

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Abraham, as numerous as the stars. And to David, you're going to have a descendant who will sit on the throne, who will be king, ultimately king over the world.

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God's going to put the world right again, he's going to give the world a king, the only king that ultimately can save us,

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Jesus, the deliverer. But that's how the text opens up. But as you move through Matthew and you get to verse 14 or 18, it says, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

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When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be a child from the

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Holy Spirit, in the Greek, by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Miraculous. Now the story moves further on and Matthew is a

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Jew and he knows that this is part of God's larger story, so he's thinking in Isaiah. This isn't something dropped into history, you need to understand that.

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Man -made religion may be based upon private revelation and it may be based upon secrets and it may be very creative and it may exist in the mind of that person creating it, but this story is a story that actually started to take place and take shape and form for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus walked in his earthly ministry and before Matthew wrote these words.

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And here's what Matthew records from Isaiah, quoting from the angel, she will bear a son and you shall call his name

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Jesus, which means Savior, for he will save his people from their sins.

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All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name

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Emmanuel, which means God with us. He quotes from Isaiah, he quotes from Isaiah 7 -14, this first prophecy pulled from in Matthew that God was coming as a man, the virgin would give birth to a child,

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God with us. But there's more, he's thinking in Isaiah and if you continue in Isaiah just two chapters later,

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Isaiah 9 -6 -7 is something fantastic. It doesn't make any sense.

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The basis of Scripture is monotheism, there is only one true and living

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God, only one God. God says in Isaiah 43 -10, before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

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I am the first and I am the last, besides me there is no God. The very basis of every

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Jew's morning and evening prayer then and even now for a faithful Jew is Deuteronomy 6 -4, hear

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O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. In Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad, that's what they would have said all the time,

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Jesus would have said that. In Isaiah 9 -6 -7 it says that a son is coming, a child, and watch, he shall be called wonderful counselor,

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El Gibor, the mighty God, the father of eternity. That's Isaiah 9 guys, that's about 700 years before Matthew wrote this text, before Jesus came in his earthly ministry.

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What's that say? It's not just a prophet who's coming, not just a man, not just a moral teacher, not a philosopher,

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God won't let you do that with Jesus. Jesus is

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God in the flesh, that's what was prophesied, that God would come to redeem sinners. The one we've offended, the

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Holy One, we're the rebels, He is the one who was offended and He comes to chase the fallen,

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He comes to chase the broken, He comes to enter into disharmonious relationships,

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He comes to chase the sinner, it's completely backwards in any human thinking,

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God coming as a man, humbling Himself and entering into our death, suffering among us, there's nothing that you can bring to Jesus that He doesn't understand better than you.

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He doesn't come to just save sinners to punch their ticket for heaven one day, He takes the death that we deserve, fully absorbs in Himself the wrath of the

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Father and exhausts it in Himself. But during His earthly ministry, Jesus was in poverty,

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He says to a guy that wants to follow Him, foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay

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His head. It's a very beautiful way of saying I'm homeless, you sure you want to follow me? Jesus has to feed

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His followers with miracles because what? There's no money in the ministry account, no coffee shop in the church, no bowling alley, no big praise bands, no play land for the kids, this is

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Jesus humble and even being stolen from by somebody in the ministry. Jesus understands poverty,

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Jesus understands sickness, He understands death, Jesus understands physical abuse and torture.

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Jesus enters into our suffering to take our death, but along the way He steps into a fallen world, a world we've chosen for ourselves to save people who are undeserving, wholly undeserving.

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What do we deserve from God? Not Him, not His grace, not

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His mercy, we deserve what every criminal would get in any court with a good judge.

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We deserve justice, we deserve condemnation, but the majesty of Jesus Christ in this

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Christmas story is that God loves sinners who are the rebels.

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God loves the ones who are in themselves enemies. Ephesians chapter 2 says about Christians, it says, you are by nature children of wrath, you were dead in your sins and trespasses, but God made you alive together with Him by grace you've been saved, nothing in us.

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And the amazing, watch this, watch this, the story of this holy and gracious God, the one God, the eternal

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God, triune, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Father sends the Son, the

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Son enters into our existence, takes on flesh, walks among us, that story, watch it fleshed out though, the prophets promised the

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Messiah was coming and He was going to bring the nations back to God. Isaiah 2, they would stream up to the mountain of God, they'd be drawn by God, they'd be saved and forgiven.

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Messiah would be pierced through for our transgressions, it says in the Old Testament, crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well -being fell upon Him and by His wounds we'd be healed.

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But it talks about the nations being saved, coming to God, being redeemed.

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Christmas is all about that. Look at the text, maybe you missed it before, but listen, that was the story, is that not just Jews but Gentiles were going to come now into one body and know

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God, intimately forgiven, redeemed, descendants of Abraham as numerous as the stars.

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Watch, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is

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He who was born King of the Jews? For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship

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Him. And then they quote from a text. What's the text? Micah 5 -2,

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Old Testament, what's it say? The Messiah would come from Bethlehem, that's not all. It's not just oh little town of Bethlehem in Micah 5 -2, it's the one coming from Bethlehem is

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God from eternity. God's coming to save sinners.

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But did you notice what happened there? Did you ever catch it? All the texts, virgin birth,

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Messiah, God Himself coming, you have the promises and then genealogies, God has kept His promises to Abraham and to David.

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Did you notice the first people that came to Jesus? Who were they? Jews? Wise men from the east, who were they?

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Pagans. These are Gentile, in this day, unbelieving pagans.

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Do you see the story now, fleshed out? The first people to come to Jesus, to look for Him, to worship

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Him as the King, were not Jews. They were pagan

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Gentiles that God was now drawing. It's the first symbol, it's the first sign that God is keeping

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His promises to now save from among all the nations. And the glory of Christmas for me in a moment like this, it's spectacular.

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It truly is spectacular. Here we are now, on a little island in the middle of the ocean.

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And we have 2 ,000 years after the time of the Messiah, His perfect life and death and resurrection.

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We have believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, redeemed and forgiven people who know God are saved and forgiven among all the nations.

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Think for a moment now. Here I am, an American from Arizona, standing in Australia, telling you the story about the

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Messiah who saved sinners, and He will save you today if you repent and believe the gospel. And here we now have a nation we're standing in that was heavily affected by Christians who know

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Christ, people who know Jesus. You still have a lot of work to do, but people who know Christ.

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All over the world, people who love the Lord God of Israel. Most of us today, sitting here right now and standing here right now, most of us are descendants of pagan parents.

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Not Jewish by birth. And what has God done? What does Christmas shout to the world? That God kept

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His promises. He came into the world. He lived among us. He kept all of those promises to save sinners.

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And if you believe in Christ today, if you are joined to Him by faith and you have eternal life as a gift by His grace through faith, apart from any work because of Him, if you know

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Christ and you are known by God and you know Him today, you are evidence of God's faithfulness to His promises.

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You are testimony to God's covenant faithfulness. And Christmas is a time every year to remember that God keeps

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His promises and that God loves sinners. And if you look around you right now at all the different faces and all the different backgrounds, we are joined together in love for the same

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Savior. No matter your background. No matter your color. No matter your culture.

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Saved by the same God. Saved by the same blood. And if you want to know Him today, please hear this.

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This is the story of the gospel in a nutshell. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner.

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God is righteous. We're not. We deserve condemnation. We deserve wrath because God is good and He's a good judge.

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He can't simply let us go. But God loves sinners so much that in the person of Christ He took on flesh to live a perfect life in the place of sinners.

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To die a death that you do deserve. The wages of sin is death.

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That's why He took that death. It wasn't just to be a good example. It's because we deserve it.

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And He was buried and He rose again. He is ascended and seated. And this is the call of the gospel.

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Repent and believe the gospel. Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you,

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He who hears My voice and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life.

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Jesus tells us, You're dead in your sins and trespasses. The call of the gospel is to come and join

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Christ now in His death. Come to die and rise again. Today.

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If you want to know Christ, you can know Him now. Christ calls you to turn from sin, to come to Him in faith.

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You abandon your sin, you abandon your self -righteousness and you come to receive the gift, the gift of eternal life.

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Be reconciled to God. That's the call of the gospel and that's the beauty of Christmas. God saves sinners.